Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns had three meetings with Jeffrey Epstein in 2014, when the top spy official was deputy secretary of state and after Epstein was convicted of child sex exploitation, documents indicate.
Epstein's "black book" of contacts and flight logs shows that Burns first met with Epstein in Washington before Burns visited the convicted sex offender in his Manhattan townhouse, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
Burns, who became CIA director under Joe Biden in 2021, met with Epstein while he was preparing to leave his position in the government, CIA spokeswoman Tammy Kupperman Thorp said.
"The director did not know anything about him, other than that he was introduced as an expert in the financial services sector and offered general advice on transition to the private sector," she said. "They had no relationship."
Epstein, who was found dead in a Manhattan federal jail in 2019 while awaiting charges related to sex trafficking, pleaded guilty in 2009 to Florida state charges of soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution. He served about 13 months in a work-release program and became a registered sex offender.
Other notable names the Journal reported l in Epstein's calendar include Obama White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, who met dozens of times with Epstein after leaving the administration but before joining Goldman Sachs as a top attorney, as well as professor and activist Noam Chomsky and Bard College President Leon Botstein.
The outlet could not verify whether every meeting scheduled in Epstein's logs took place, and the documents are unclear about the purpose of the meetings.
